The Harmonicon. Part the First

by Various

The vignette of a manuscript of the beginning of the fourteenth century, which was in the possession of Gayon de Sardiere, exhibits the figure of a jongleur sitting on a high bench and playing the violin. As the manuscript contains the songs of the King of Navarre, the intention of the artist was to represent the jongleur in the act of singing the songs of the king, who is present with his consort, the queen. Both are sitting, and seem to be listening to the performer. The courtiers appear to pay him no less attention. These various monuments prove that the violin had been long in use among the jongleurs. The most celebrated people of this calling were the best violin players of their time; and the lyre was at all times but a very subordinate instrument.

The Antiquities of Struth contain many interesting figures. One represents an English fiddler, whose violin has only two strings, while others have four. One has but three. This was during a long period the usual number, and the instrument was called a rebec. It is not exactly known when the fourth string was permanently added. Laborde thinks in the sixteenth century, and rests his opinion on the fact, that the best violins which we possess are still those which Charles IX. of France caused to be constructed by the celebrated Amati of Cremona. These are also the best models. But there is a drawing of the instrument by Matthew Paris, which proves its antiquity to be great. Perhaps it was only in the sixteenth century that its use became general, about which time the form of the violin, as well as the art of playing on it, reached a high degree of perfection. The violin of St. Genestus is no rebec; it has four strings, and is formed like ours.

It remains for us to speak of a singular dignity or office, which owed its origin to this instrument. Every company, or guild, had formerly a head or leader, who bore the title of king. The grocers, surveyors, barbers, &c., nay, even the poets, had their king: but the usurpations and arbitrary sway of these singular monarchs brought about their dethronement, and nothing remained of such royalty except the king at arms and the king of the fiddlers.

The history of the first kings of the fiddlers is not known, and it would be impossible to enumerate them in the order of their succession. The earliest on record is Jean Charmillon, who, under Philip le Bel, was chosen king of the jongleurs in the city of Troyes, A.D. 1295. Constantine, a celebrated violin player at the court of Lewis XIII., obtained the dignity of king of the fiddlers and master of the musicians (roi des violons et maître des ménestriers). He died in 1657, and was succeeded by Dumanoir, known by the name of William I. After the death of the latter, the crown descended to his son, William II., who abdicated, and thereby caused a state of anarchy. Lewis XIV. looked with indifference on the extinction of a royalty of this kind, and declared that he had no inclination to revive it.

The musical kingdom had long been troubled by internal and external feuds: the dancing-masters, supported by their leader, had for more than half a century carried on a warfare against their rivals, the common fiddlers, who, to the disgrace of their art, used to play in the taverns and beer-houses. They prosecuted the town-dancers, until, in 1666, they obtained a formal decree. No company was so rich in strife and turmoil; their contests produced a number of judicial sentences. The momentous object of these contests was the suppression of one string in the fiddles of their adversaries, whom they wished to bring back and limit to the ancient and legitimate form of their instrument, the rebec.

This interregnum lasted from 1685 to 1741, when Gaignon, a celebrated violin player, aspired to the rank of fidicinal royalty, and was honoured with it, by Lewis XV., on the 15th of June of the latter year.

But Gaignon’s government was too arbitrary; he wished to revive a number of obsolete privileges; and many musicians, especially the organists, successfully opposed his attempts, and Gaignon in disgust resigned his royal dignity, which was finally abolished in 1773.

The second bridge, above mentioned, is a matter of some surprise; for it is difficult to conceive what could have been the use of the finger-board, or indeed of the neck altogether, if the sounds of the strings were fixed between the two bridges. I have myself met elsewhere with drawings of this kind, the execution of which, however, is so bad and indistinct, that it is not easy to guess the purport of the little cross-stroke which Millin takes for a second bridge. Might it not be possible to explain the matter in a more obvious manner?—The sounding-holes in violins (our present f holes) have in former times often changed their figure and place, until the shape of an f was universally adopted. Sometimes they were in the form of a crescent; sometimes they were contrived in the sides of the instrument, either above or below. In short, their shape and place depended entirely on the fancy of the constructor: I therefore think it probable that the little cross-stroke may have been meant to represent, not a second bridge, but a sounding-hole.

WORCESTER MUSICAL FESTIVAL.

THE hundred and tenth meeting of the choirs of Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester, for the benefit of the Widows and Orphans of Clergymen of the three dioceses, will be held at Worcester on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th of September next. There will be, in all, seven performances—four in the Cathedral, on the mornings of the days before mentioned, and three Grand Miscellaneous Concerts at the College Hall, on the evenings of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.